Hermione and Draco simply stared at each other. Draco's mouth hung open with shock and maybe a little bit of anger. "Granger, what did you do?" he asked, his voice raising, getting louder with every word.
"I-I don't know!" she felt so confused. "It's just a binding spell, like incarcerous! I just wanted to see how it worked, and I figured they would have told us if it were a dangerous one!"
Draco just continued to stare at her, shaking his head as she spoke. "Well done, Granger. It is a binding spell. But it's not a binding spell like incarcerous, it binds people. I thought you knew Latin! At least enough to know the meaning of a spell you cast!" Draco had begun pacing at this point, tugging at his short blonde hair to the point where Hermione thought he might pull it straight out of his head.
"Alright," she said calmly, "simple then. We go to the Headmistress and ask for her help reversing the spell." Hermione began packing up her books, a bead of sweat forming on her brow, betraying her anxiety at the situation. With all of her books packed away in her bag, Hermione turned up her nose at Draco and said, "For the record, I do know Latin. I just bungled the meaning a little bit, that's all."
Hermione took off down the hall quickly, desperate to get this straightened out as quickly as possible. Draco had to walk faster than normal just to keep up with her.
They reached the Headmistress's office in record time, Hermione muttering the password "Fizzlesnap," under her breath. She headed straight up the stairs with Draco right on her heels.
"Miss Granger," Professor McGonagall had taken over as Headmistress after the war ended, and Hermione couldn't think of anyone better than her beloved Head of House to run the school. "And young Mister Malfoy. How can I help the two of you?"
Draco spoke before Hermione could, partly because she was out of breath from the speed she was walking to get here. "Hermione and I were studying together and she asked for my help with her wand work. We were holding the wand together so I could show her, and she slipped the spell out while we did it, and well… we cast a spell together."
"Oh dear. Well, I do appreciate the two of you letting me in on your study sessions," the Professor said with a smirk, "I do have to wonder why you believed it necessary to tell me."
Draco rubbed his forehead and sighed, "It was Committere in foedere."
McGonagall gasped and brought her hand up to her mouth. She looked between the two, likely looking for traces of humor on either of their faces that would indicate this was a joke. When she found none, she clasped her hands together and asked, "What do either of you know of this spell?"
Hermione had finally seemed to find her voice and said, "We know it's a binding spell. That it binds people. That's why we came to you, we were hoping you'd know how to undo the binding."
The Headmistress looked at the two teenagers with pity, "I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but there is no way to remove the binding. This is a very old spell, one that was used when bindings were meant to be for life."
Hermione and Draco were both staring in open-mouthed shock at the Headmaster. "Why in Merlin's name are we supposed to learn it if it's such an old spell, then? Shouldn't we be learning spells that are useful to us?" Draco was yelling now, his emotions running wild. This was not how this year was supposed to go. He was supposed to keep his head down and finish the school year. That was his agreement with the Wizengamot. They would consider his sentence fulfilled if he finished the year with Acceptable's or higher.
"Mister Malfoy," the Professor replied, "Please lower your voice in my office. I understand how you must be feeling, but yelling will not solve our problems here now. The eighth-year curriculum was created to be advanced, challenging work that, we thought, would be harmless to our student body. Of course, we did not account for two students casting any of these spells together. Now that it has happened, we will, unfortunately, need to discuss the consequences a bit more."
"Consequences? You mean like being bound together for the rest of our lives?" Hermione asked. Draco was still pacing the floor, and Hermione wondered if he was even hearing anything they were saying.
"Yes, Miss Granger. There is more to this spell than just being bound to one another." The Professor's mouth set into a grim line. "There is no easy way to say this, so I will just say it. The binding has… requirements. Rules. Back when this spell was created, the most important thing to the wizarding world as a whole was, well, procreation. In order to encourage this, the binding spell comes with compulsions. During the first three days after the initial bonding, your bonds will reach out to each other. Being close to each other will help, but by the end of the three days, if the bond is not… satisfied, both of you will experience extreme discomfort until it is satisfied."
Hermione's eyes had begun watering, not wanting to believe what her Head of House was saying to her. She looked up at Draco and saw a matching look of horror on his face as well. "Please, Professor. There's nothing you can do?" Hermione asked in a whisper.
"I will ask around and see if there is anyone that has a fix for this mess, but as it is now, you have 72 hours to come to terms with your new situation. I am sorry Miss Granger, Mister Malfoy. Please, come see me if there is anything I can do to make this situation better. The two of you will of course use discretion with this, yes? I will arrange for you to have use of a room should you need it." With the Professor's words, Hermione and Draco knew they had been dismissed.
"Thank you, Professor." The two said and walked out, both lost in their own thoughts and emotions.
A/N: Shoutout to the review for letting me know about my mess up, that's what I get for writing at 2am!